Oleg Deripaska wants money again

En + group thought about the new placement of shares, reports Reuters. Oleg Deripaska's company is studying the possibility of holding an SPO for $ 1 billion after the election of the Russian president.

The fact that En + Oleg Deripaska's group, which held an IPO in November last year, is exploring the possibility of a secondary offering of shares (SPO), Reuters was informed by sources familiar with the situation.

The agency's interlocutors said that En + had already sent out proposals to international banks to apply for the role of SPO organizers at $ 1 billion. According to them, this is a public deal after the presidential elections in Russia, scheduled for March 18.

An En + spokesman declined to comment on SPO issues, the agency said. So did the representative of Deripaska. "We do not comment on market rumors," Reuters cites her words.

Last November, En + held an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. This was the first placement of shares in a Russian company in London after the introduction of sanctions in 2014. The company then raised $ 1.5 billion. Some of the funds from the IPO En + was sent to pay off the debt to VTB.

For what purposes En + wants to raise funds from the secondary offering of shares, Reuters sources did not say.

In early February, The Telegraph reported that the British Foreign Intelligence Service MI6 expressed concern about the November placement of En + on the London Stock Exchange. In particular, they are concerned that one of the shareholders of En + is the Russian state bank VTB, which is under EU and US sanctions. In response, the En + representative said that the charges and assumptions that the Telegraph cites were false, and the representative of VTB (owns 3.8% of En +) said that repaying the loan to the bank from funds raised during the IPO on the London Stock Exchange is not a violation of the sanctions mode.

The lock-up period, during which the company, as well as the structures of Deripaska and VTB, will not sell En + shares after the IPO, ends in early May. At the end of trading on February 14, En + shares on the London Stock Exchange were cheaper ($ 13.2 per GDR) than when offering in the IPO ($ 14).

"It is possible that the new placement at a price below the recent IPO may imply in the long term the exchange of shares of UC Rusal (traded in Hong Kong) to En +, listed on a more liquid London exchange," said Maxim Khudalov, director of the corporate ratings group of ACRA.

In an interview with Vedomosti, Vladimir Potanin, the main owner of Norilsk Nickel, said that the strategic goal of Deripaska is to consolidate UC Rusal on the basis of En +: "Oleg told me that he sees more synergies between UC Rusal and En + and he thinks more in the direction of how consolidate this chain based on En +. He told that he is going to make an IPO, and as a result you see: Glencore is changing some of its shares in UC Rusal to En +. It turns out that En + is turning into a company that holds a controlling stake in UC Rusal. "

Another shareholder will be the Swiss Glencore. Trader will exchange 8.75% of UC Rusal for a stake in the company after the completion of the IPO, having obtained the necessary permits of regulators and the government. As a result, the share of En + in UC Rusal will increase to 56.88% (now 48.13%).